The Artists : Elisabeth,Tracey, Joan, Helen, Agnes

The artists here have been selected from various lists we found online from Google searches. We learnt so much during these searches and realized how much work needs to be done in terms of equality, not just gender but also race. We have a long way to go. 

Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (born 16 April 1755), was a prominent French portrait painter of the late eighteenth century. As her career blossomed, Elisabeth was granted patronage by Marie Antoinette. She painted more than thirty portraits of the queen and her family, leading to the common perception that she was the official portraitist of Marie Antoinette.In October 1789, after the arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution, Elisabeth fled France with her young daughter, Julie. In her twelve-year absence from France, she lived and worked in Italy, Austria, Russia, and Germany leaving her artworks all over Europe. Read more about Elisabeth here: Biography.com

Tracey Emin, (born 3 July 1963) is an English contemporary artist known for her autobiographical and confessional artwork. Emin is often called the "bad girl of British art" for her raucous public appearances and self-righteous art which are quite contrary to societal norms in England, and previous notions of femininity. She is best known for her deeply personal and confessional artwork that she promotes through her celebrity and use of the popular media. Personal traumatic events such as unreported rape, public humiliation, sexism, botched abortions, alcoholism, and promiscuity have been her topics. Read more about Tracey here: The Art Story

Joan Mitchell (born 12 February 1925) was an American "second generation" abstract expressionist painter and printmaker. She was a member of the American abstract expressionist movement, even though much of her career took place in France.She was one of her era's few female painters to gain critical and public acclaim. Her paintings and editioned prints can be seen in major museums and collections across the United States and Europe. Read more about Joan here: The Art Story

Helen Frankenthaler (12 December 1928) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s until 2011), she spanned several generations of abstract painters while continuing to produce vital and ever-changing new work. Frankenthaler often painted onto unprimed canvas with oil paints that she heavily diluted with turpentine, a technique that she named "soak stain."Read more about Helen here: The Art Story

Agnes Bernice Martin (born 22 March 1912), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Martin considered herself an abstract expressionist. After earning a degree in art education, she moved to the desert plains of Taos, New Mexico, where she made abstract paintings with organic forms, which attracted the attention of renowned New York gallerist Betty Parsons, who convinced the artist to join her roster and move to New York in 1957. There, Martin lived and worked on Coenties Slip, a street in Lower Manhattan, alongside a community of artists—including Robert Indiana, Ellsworth Kelly, and Jack Youngerman—who were all drawn to the area’s cheap rents, expansive loft spaces and proximity to the East River. Read more about Agnes here: The Art Story

All excerpts from Wikipedia, thanks Wiki!